Just over five years ago I entered into one of the most challenging periods of my life. At 28, I had become the executive director of Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI) — a nonprofit that serves black immigrants and refugees, among the most disadvantaged populations in the nation — which was in the red.

SO, WHICH SIDE are you on? #TeamWest or #TeamCoates? Choose fast, preferably within seconds, and don’t come to this gunfight with a knife. No, like some nerdy Rambo, we want you greased up and loaded with ammo: your most painful character smears, your most “gotcha”...

Immigration is a hot issue this election season. Unfortunately, despite the attention that news outlets and presidential candidates are giving the issue, the most devastating policies immigrants face—the 1996 immigration laws—are barely on the radar.

Pew Research is just discovering something: Black people are not all the same. This is a truth that the Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI) has been living for the nearly decade of its existence. And it is a truth that Black people have known for generations.